PokéDuel (Spinoff PU)
by MetaGamer
Summary: Yugi, Bakura, & Seto Kaiba get reincarnated, unaware they are just pawns in an endless cycle. Zorc is back & eager to play another game with the Pharaoh. A small region tries to boast tourism by allowing special cards in their official Pokemon Battles. Meanwhile Digimon pour into the world through portals opened by Team Rocket. Yaoi Furry Spanking, Happy Fluff / some Gore
1. Chapter 1

**Title:**

PokeDuel

**Summary:**

Yugi, Bakura, &amp; Seto Kaiba get reincarnated, unaware they are just pawns in an endless cycle. Zorc is back &amp; eager to play another game with the Pharaoh. A small region tries to boast tourism by allowing special cards in their official Pokemon Battles. Meanwhile Digimon pour into the world through portals opened by Team Rocket. Yaoi Furry Spanking, Happy Fluff / Gore

**Edit:**

Changed the Timeline and moved the story to an original Region so I could have more freedom with the gym leader battles and so that Red and Blue from the original Pokemon Games could be used as the rivals.

###

**Chapter One: They live amongst us**

"Welcome back to Pocket Monsters Daily, for those of you just now joining us we have with us today a very special guest. Descendant of the inventor of the Pokeball, heir to the Kaiba Corporation, and named Pokemon Champion in five regional tournaments, the one and only Seto Kaiba"

"A pleasure to be here Mr. Wong" despite his words the skilled 16 year old trainer appeared more bored then pleased. However the Dratini draped over his shoulders appeared ecstatic as its head turned in every direction, examining the stage and the audience looking out at them.

"Now, Mr. Kaiba, is it true that it's thanks to you Giovanni was able to legalize his trading cards into the tournament of the Millennium Islands?"

"The rumors would be correct. I invested a good bit of money into Giovanni's campaign as well as personally designed the Duel Disk system that has been in use for the past 3 years. I even designed the upgraded model that has been authorized for official use in this years tournament and of course the necessary gym battles needed to qualify. Hopefully the obvious success of these upcoming tournaments will cause the other regions to see reason and agree to the next phase of Pokemon battles"

"For those of you who don't know" Mr. Wong smiled at the camera "Pokemon are physically manifestations of data, how that came to be is a mystery thousands of years in the making. Pokeballs are used to scramble that data to safely and conveniently store these creatures. Giovanni, the gym leader of Viridian City, went one step further and created cards that carry a code or program that affects Pokemon. These cards, with the help of Mr. Kaiba's Duel Disk system, have been used in unofficial battles between trainers since their creation. Mr. Kaiba would you care to demonstrate?"

Not answering Kaiba stood revealing the 'Duel Disk' attached to his left arm. It was a circle near his elbow with a blade attached to it going along the length of his forearm. The blade had 5 slots for cards on top and five more slits inside it for cards to be placed. The circle itself had six shrunken PokeBalls embedded into it and a holder for a deck of cards near the body. Another holder was facing the hand. It was the 'graveyard' for cards no longer in play.

"Dartini" Kaiba spoke to his Pokemon and the blue serpent jumped off his shoulder and got in a fighting position. Its eyes narrowing in an attempt to look dangerous but only managing to increase its cuteness factor. Kaiba pulled out a card from his deck and put it on one of the slots. A beam of data shot out from the disk onto the Dartini and materialized as a sword floating next to it. The young serpent quickly curled its tail around the hilt of the blade as it materialized and the moment it was stable swung it about with the grace of the finest dancer. This all happened in less then a moment.

"The card holds the program and is relayed through the Pokeball" Kaiba explained "Different cards contain different effects. You can give your Pokemon upgrades such as weapons, armor, power ups, healing during a match, even" Kaiba placed down another card on the disk and the Dartini erupted into red light, growing and mutating until a Dragonair stood in its place still holding the sword "Evolving the Pokemon to the next Stage, unfortunately it is only temporary. It only last as long as the card is in play" taking all the cards off the disk the Pokemon instantly erupted back into light and there floated the cute little Dartini.

"We call this temporary evolution 'digivolving' and we've taken it to the next logical phase" he held up a monster card that had a picture of a white dragon with blue eyes. Smiling as he throw it down on the Duel Disk the people in the audience gasped and the camera was forced to zoom out as the cute little Dartini transformed into that massive dragon "there are special rare cards that allow Pokemon of the same type to digivolve into them. These cards vastly increase the Pokemon's power as well as unlock new attacks" pushing down on one of the Pokeballs on the disk the dragon turned into a flash of red light and was pulled through the Duel Disk back inside the Pokeball "Equipment like that cards and digivolutions are placed on the top of the blade were magic and tarp cards are kept inside. You cannot have more then five cards equipped to your Pokemon according to the rules and no more then five spell or trap cards on the field either"

"The only flaw with the Duel Disk is that as a result of the data on the cards being channelled through the Pokeball we have not yet perfected battles which use more then one Pokemon per trainer, but we're looking into it"

"Amazing" Mr. Wong clapped "Now as a personal treat for our audience you're each going home with your own personal Duel Disk as well as a starter deck courtesy of Kaiba Corp"

Yugi sat wiggling in front of the tv, the binders that held his cards beside him and many of the cards were spread out in front of him as he rebuilt his deck for the hundredth time that week. The binders kept the cards safe in plastic sheets and were organized by type: Spell cards, trap cards, armor cards, weapon cards, and digivolution cards (the last binder was the thinnest as such monster cards were so rare he had very few in comparison to the others).

In all he had hundreds of cards but only one Pokemon. His Gastly was floating around the room chuckling for some reason. He found it years ago... or should he say the Gastly found him. Back when Yugi was little he got lost in the ruins near Domino City. His older brother was always telling him off for exploring that place but most of the kids in town liked to hang out there. As expected Yugi got lost and after a few hours this Gastly showed up and started chasing him. Okay it was more like following but ghost Pokemon could be terrifying at first glance. Eventually Yugi got too tired of running and the Gastly just floated there next to him for awhile. After realizing it wasn't going to eat him he let the ghost lead him out of the tunnels but then it refused to leave. It just kept following him everywhere. When Yugi got home and his brother saw the Gastly he gave the small boy a Pokeball and the Gastly popped right in without hesitation.

There were a few Pokemon activists out there who thought 'imprisoning' Pokemon in Pokeballs and having them battle one another was wrong but obviously they never meet Gastly. He loved to fight and could be a real brat about it, mocking his opponents by laughing at them or making faces. He also loved his Pokeball and would pop himself in there whenever he got bored or sleepy. That was the only time he was in the Pokeball usually as Yugi liked having him follow him around. Gastly was good company.

There was a saying Yugi heard from a few of the trainers that came to town "Spend enough time with a Pokemon and you'll start to make sense of their gibberish" that was definitely true of Gastly. Yugi could guess pretty well what Gastly was trying to say when he repeated his species name over and over again like most Pokemon do... and right now he was making fun of him for constantly messing with his cards.

Yugi couldn't help it, he was so excited. He was going to be ten in a few days, finally old enough to challenge a gym and set out on his own adventure.

He held up his favorite card by far and smiled. 'The Dark Magician' it was a digivolution card, or a monster card if you prefer. Written on it were the requirements and abilities of the card. It could only be used if the Pokemon was a Ghost, Dark, or Psychic type. It gave the Pokemon tremendous power and two attacks. 'Dark Magic Attack' which was a burst of purple energy that did amazing damage and 'Staff Strike' which was far weaker but took your opponent off balance for a moment.

The power of the cards meant very little if you didn't know how to use them. You had to be strategic in their implementation just like with ordinary attacks. Dispite being too young to be a legitimate trainer Yugi often battled those that came to challenge the gym leader of their city. They saw him as a nice warm up or a bit of fun before a serious match. Sometimes they used cards or had a more traditional fight. Cards more often now that they were officially in the tournament but it used to be kind of rare with legitimate trainers as they wanted practice for the gym leader; Although cards with unofficial trainers who were too young or just didn't care about gym battles was practically always with cards going all the way back to when they first came out on the market. It didn't matter as either way Yugi usually won, putting much egg on the older trainers faces.

Putting the Dark Magician down in the 'must have' pile for his deck he picked up another card 'Magical Hats'. It was a trap card that hide your Pokemon in one of four large hats. The Pokemon stayed hidden until the opponent either found him or you choice to leave the hat (generally for a surprise attack). It was also good if your Pokemon was injured as you could safely use a healing spell card without your opponent's knowledge or add more armor. Or better yet set up traps in the other hats.

Yugi also like to give Gastly a digiberry, like the ones his brother grew in the back, to wear before a battle that way if things got drastic Gastly could recover health quickly during a fight without taking up a card slot. It took a few seconds to lay down a spell card then remove it once it was activated and lay down another card. Seconds could be vital during a match. You had to be quick with your cards, your orders, and your strategy well keeping an eye on your Pokemon. Battling with Duel Disks was much harder though it should make it easier. It definitely made the battle funner for all involved as you got to be more then a cheerleader for your Pokemon.

Yugi finally settled on his deck, again, and shuffled them before sticking them in the deck holder of his blue leather PokeBall belt. He practically always wore that along with the old model Duel Disk he had on his left forearm. The old model could only hold one Pokeball at a time so if you were someone that actually had all six Pokemon on your person, as was the official limit, you had to switch out the Pokeball in the disk. It also didn't have the blade so cards were placed placed on the disk itself, leaving no room for a deck or a graveyard. Also the old model didn't keep track of the cards you used during a battle so some people were tempted at cheating. Yugi caught some people laying down the same spell card more then once. Once a card is used or neutralized ('destroyed' is the term even though no harm actually comes to the card or the program within it) your supposed to take it out of the game. The new Duel Disk actually keeps track of each card played. Each card is marked with a serial number, no card has the same number. The new model reads that code so you can't play the same card twice unless you have multiple of that card in your deck. The old model doesn't do that. You can even whisper in your attacks and your Pokemon will hear you through the PokeBall. Although must people just shout at the Pokemon themselves that was still a great feature, especially for sneaky cards like 'Magical Hats'. Another thing the new model does is it has a built in PokeDex. Under the arm has a screen you can flip up to reveal the buttons but largely it is voice activated with over a thousand registered Pokemon and can record info if you find a new one.

Yugi was really hoping, and begging, his brother got him the new Duel Disk system for his birthday. He had been researching it like crazy since they announced it, even before he knew the old model wasn't allowed in official battles.

Sighing Yugi put the cards we wasn't going to use in their appropriate binders and put them back into his backpack. He needed his cards for when he caught new pokemon. Who knew what type they'd be or what cards would be best for them. Right now his 60 card limit deck completely revolved around Gastly.

The belt was one of the few pieces of real clothing he had on along with his boxer briefs, an undershirt that stopped just above his belly, a pair of fingerless gloves and socks, and a five inch long screen on a leather wristband. The whole set worked with a series of micro projectors that digitally synthesized programs into solid objects or could convert solid objects into digital information to be stored inside the computer in the watch. It was basically a portable PC. Nearly anything could be transformed into data and stored inside the device. It was the same general principal PokeBalls ran on. You could even create programs that could be given physical form in the real world. Of course those programs weren't real so they could only exist as long as the projectors of the watch were sustaining them and you couldn't synthesize overly complex things like Pokeballs, the cards, chemicals, medication, or food (you could make digital food for the taste but it wasn't real so the body couldn't absorb anything from it. It would just disintegrate into meaningless data when consumed. One good thing about that was you could eat all the cake you wanted without getting fat but it didn't quite taste the same as real cake. Some health nuts claim it can give you cancer but that can be cured with about a month's worth of pills and one doctor's visit to get the prescription) but that's what the storage feature was for. Nearly anything could be digitized and put inside the watch. Real things were just more expensive and more complex so they took up more memory space.

The large pocket of the backpack was where you could digitize items to store them and resynthesize many of them into being where the smaller pockets on the sides and front could actually be used to hold items. The undershirt and boxers were used to create outfits around your body. The clothes were never real but they still felt like it and measured themselves perfectly to fit. No matter who much your body grew or changed the clothing programs would always be a perfect fit so you never had to buy new clothes, besides underwear. Yugi actually had tons of different outfits programs in his watch but he needed to tell the watch which set of undergarments he was wearing so it could sink up to them and project his desired outfit. You never had to worry about washing clothes as first most of your clothes don't actually exist and are just projects and your real garments, extra pairs of underwear and such, could be stored inside the watch as well. Anything stored inside was run through filters and any dirt and such was instantly put in the 'Recycle Bin' to be permanently deleted at your discretion. It didn't instantly delete it because someone might actually want to store a special type of soil or what other people would consider garbage for research purposes. Then you had to move it out of the Recycle Bin and into a different folder.

The Projectors in the hands could be used to synthesize programs into your hand or touching it. You could create a bike or even a small boat where you wanted by holding out your hand and the program would become solid right in front of you. Real items could not be taken out of storage from those projectors but again that was what the backpack was for.

There was even an App store in the watch where you could buy new programs and games. You could get on the internet, watch movies and tv shows, do pretty much anything a PC could do including storing your Pokemon inside a digital environment for them to enjoy. You literally carry your PC with you everywhere. The watch and the undergarments cost a lot of money it's true but it's cheaper in the long run then buying real things and is far more convenient.

Yugi had been buying programs like crazy on his watch (Clothes, rope, tools, junk food) in preparation for when he would leave home. He looked at his watch and scrolled down with his finger. All the information was separated by tabs and organized by folders he created for them. He pushed the folder labelled 'snacks' and held out his open palm. A bite sized candy bar materialized in the hand and Yugi popped it into his mouth. The taste reminded him a little of a chocolate covered strawberry but not really. It was a cheap program he bought years ago but it still tasted good.

Savoring the taste he went to the 'My Apps' tab on the screen before clicking on the 'Games' folder. He smiled pushing a vampire hunting game called 'Blood Lust' where you were a half vampire killing off hundreds of different species of vampires. It was an RPG and the creators said it would take about 12 years to get through all the special side missions and content. Most Role Playing Games were like that nowadays. They took forever to make but they were so worth it. After that he opened up a few comics on his tablet.

After that Yugi considered deleting his book programs for such. Just the solid projections as the text itself might come in handy. It seemed odd to generate books when you could just read them on a screen (you couldn't even save your place in solid books) but that's just how Yugi's teacher was. He probably would have liked to take it a step further and used books made out of PAPER, that needlessly kills trees! Thinking on it Yugi figured the man must be worried his students would be playing on their tablets if he allowed them to use them in class... which may be a legitimate fear.

Seeing as it was still raining pretty heavily he had no desire to do anything outdoors. So he just did a million and one things on his watch.

"Yugi!" Called a voice over the intercom "Get down here for a second"

Yugi turned off the game he had gone back to playing and made the long trip out his room and down the stairs. He lived in a six story shop called "Devlin's Trainer Dynamics". It sold Pokeballs, PokeChow, digiberries, healing potions, cards, and pretty much anything a trainer might need. It was a 'family owned' shop that had several locations but this was the biggest store and Yugi lived on the top floor with his older brother.

Their parents died in a car crash and so Duke had been raising Yugi on his own. Yugi barely even remembered their parents but Duke tried to counteract that with lots of stories about them.

Duke had been running this store and the company (along with Yugi) since he was 16 and doing a pretty good job of it. There was just one issue. He was weird.

Yugi made it to the bottom of the stairs and walked over to the counter were his brother was standing organizing trading cards to be sold separately. He made good money buying booster packs then selling the cards individually. He'd been doing that since the cards came out, long before they were permitted in office battles.

Yugi studied his brothers clothes. As per usual he was wearing tight fit jeans with a girly top that showed off his abs and sweetbands on his upper arms. He also had an earring of a miniature Pokeball handing from a chain and lots of black jeweler: bracelets, rings, a choker, necklaces, the works.

Many of the girls thought he was cute and many of the guys mistook him for a girl. He's just how he liked to dress, strangely. Yugi couldn't really talk with his hair. It was spiky with a lot of it and in three different colors (blonde, black, and red) but he couldn't help that. His hair was naturally that strange. He didn't dye it or put gell in it dispite what people thought. It just stood up like that on it's own. As for the color he just couldn't figure it out and Duke wouldn't let him dye it to look normal. It really didn't make sense as both his parents and Duke and all the way back to his great great great great great, and a million other"greats", grandparents (if the picture of the store founders on the wall was any indication) had really dark black hair. Then their was the fact they all had tanned skin where Yugi's was unusually pale. Yugi suspected he was adopted, from gypsy witch aliens, but Duke swore they were blood related... even had a blood test done to make Yugi shut up about it but if the boy was really a gypsy witch alien then the government would be covering up the test results... saying that got him a smack upside the head and an order to stop being so paranoid.

"Yugi look what I got you" Duke held up a plastic bag straight from the store filled with undergarments of the boy's favorite cartoon.

Yugi blushed, completely mortified and snapping his head from side to side to make sure no one was in the store. Luckily with the weather being so bad it had been a really slow day. The only person in the store was a very wet Bakura and Yugi suspected Duke had sent him out to get the undies in the first place. Duke could hardly of went out and bought them himself well manning the store.

"Store these in your watch will yeah" Duke smiled handing the boy the undies

"R-right" not even opening the package Yugi shoved them in his backpack and digitized them.

"And be sure to thank Bakura since he went to all the trouble of getting those for you in this weather" HE KNEW IT

"Thank you Bakura" Yugi did his best not to glare

"Duke said you'd like them" Bakura sweet dropped

Yugi sighed again at his own misplaced rage "I do but you really didn't have to go to all the trouble"

"It was no trouble really" Bakura smiled "I'm used to walking around in this kind of weather" that remark reaked of bad omens for Yugi's dry lifestyle.

Bakura was a 15 year old trainer from Fuchsia City, the Kanto region. He had come to Violet City to battle the gym leader and got beaten pretty severely. He'd been here for a little over a week training to take on the gym leader again. He made friends with everyone almost the second he arrived. He was a likeable guy if a bit meek. Duke really liked him and Yugi guessed he did to. He was more Duke's friend.

"Like to stay for dinner?" Duke smiled "Yugi's making grilled fish eyes with lemon custard" Bakura turned green not understanding it was a joke. Of course with how odd Duke was people must figure he ate all kinds of weird things.

Yugi smiled at Bakura with a decision to put him out of his misery "I'm making fried eel with Saffron Rice"

"No fish eyes with lemon custard?" Duke sniffed

"You'll eat what I give you" Yugi pretended to snap angrily and stormed back upstairs. He ideally fiddled with his watch, turning on the optional holographic interface so he got a bigger screen. The screen was just a projection of light being bent until it was solid. It made it easier to do things but not all, or most, Watches had projectors for holograms built into the glass screen as they were expensive. Duke was always complaining about how much time Yugi 'wasted' on his watch. Even saying stuff like it was going to short out and that he needed to have real clothes incase it happened or he'd be running around in his underwear. It was just an old wives tale that it could short though.

'Maybe I am just a little too dependent on technology?' the thought crossed his mind but shrugged it off. They were in a Golden Era of the Digital Age so of course he'd be taking advantage of it... that's a lot of 'ofs' for one sentence.

Shaking his head he went into the community kitchen located just a few chamber's down from his room. It was the largest and best supplied and Duke had put a large table in there for convenience. The Devlin family was once massive so they needed all these rooms and chambers back then but now it was just Yugi and his brother. It was a lot of wasted space. Duke had been talking about turning it into a hotel for trainers and moving both himself and Yugi into one of the largers, more self contained, chambers. It was a smart idea really, as long as Yugi got a door to his room. Selling trainer gear at a place that housed trainers was just good business sense.

Yugi finally decided to stop daydreaming and get started on dinner.

###

**A/N: Freakishly long Summary**

This story takes place right after 'Red' from the first Pokemon game becomes Champion of the Kanto Region. Now he is traveling the world. In this universe Ask Ketchum is the son of Red and has yet to be born as Red himself is still a kid. Red's rival Blue is Gary Oak's father. Both Red and Blue will make appearances as Rivals to Yugi, Bakura, and Seto.

The Region this story takes place in is a small chain of seven Islands that is relatively unknown to the rest of the world. Allowing Card Battles in their legitimate tournament was a gimmick to try and draw in more trainers.

These special cards are used in Pokemon Battles affect the Pokemon's code through their typing, primary or secondary. As long as Pokemon have certain characteristics the cards will work on them. Example: Charizard is a secondary dragon type. That means even though he is a fire / flying Pokemon he has the characteristics of a dragon type so Dragon cards will still work for or against him.

In this Pokemon do not forget an attack after they learned it, it's like martial art skills and doesn't really make sense that they could forget. HMs do not need to be taught to a Pokemon as they are separate abilities and attacks certain Pokemon know naturally. TMs on the other hand do need to be taught. Additional attacks can be gained temporarily through cards and only with the aid of cards can a Pokemon pull them off.

The permanent evolution of some Pokemon works differently in this then the game. Pokemon that required you to trade them to evolve, or you had to be in a certain place at the right time, now evolve with the use of stones or leveling up well holding an Item. Best Example would be the Eevee evolutions. You get an Espeon with a Moon Stone, Umbreon with a Dusk Stone, Leafeon with a Leaf Stone, and Sylveon with a Shiny Stone. You get a Glaceon when Eevee evolves well holding an Ice Sharp.

Getting Pokemon to higher levels is a really difficult and slow progress as most wild Pokemon are level 5 or lower in any region. It is very rare for a wild Pokemon to get to level 20. Pokemon higher then that are EXTREMELY rare in the wild though they do exist. Wild Pokemon in the Digital world can achieve much higher levels, even going past level 100, as that is a very brutal world.

The gang will go back and forth between the Digital world and the Pokemon world through portals that will be explained later. Just know this planet is not Earth and Humans are not native to it.

The government of the Pokemon world is highly tied to the Pokemon Tournaments. The world capital is 'Nut Prime' which is a single city with no gyms and is not part of any region. As it is neutral ground it is where they house the Pokemon World Tournament as well as the United Regions. Unlike other Tournaments you didn't earn the right to participate by winning Gym Badges. You can only enter it if you had beaten the Elite Four from at least one Regions of the planet. It is a Tournament composed entirely of Champions. If you win the World Tournament then you get the chance to battle the Elite Four of Nut Prime and then face their champion. In this world Gym leaders do a lot more then fight trainers looking to compete in the Tournament. They are political figures, owning a great deal of land and passing laws in their territory. They are higher ranking then lords. Each Region also has a council of four 'kings' or 'queens' who ruled together called the 'Elite Four'. The United Regions keep a balance like a global government made up of the Champions of each Region. The Elite Four of the World Tournament are, like Gym leaders and other Regions Elites, actually nobles who were born into their titles. Those who beat the World Tournament on Nut Prime, their Elite Four, plus the previous world Champion are made the chairman of the Council of Champions with the Elite Four being their advisers. So basically the King of this world is determined by who's the best at Pokemon Battles.

Digimon and Pokemon are the same thing but many Digimon refuse to admit that (Digiracist!). The barrier between the Digital world and the mortalverse had been heavily fortified by the Digidestined thousands of years ago. It was intended to prevent the two worlds from crashing into each other as they nearly had on multiple occasions. Although all these Digimon were fine, normally if a Digimon somehow manages crossing that barrier their code gets scrambled along with their brains. It's so bad they can only speak through subtle differences in the name of their species, even though Digimon can and do talk normally, and they also loss the ability to turn into eggs after their death. They are, however, much harder to kill though just as easy to injure. The suffix "mon" at the end of a species name is nothing more then a Digimon being polite. You use it for the species not a person's name (few Digimon have names but some do). Not using it is the greatest insult in their culture to the point even a Digimon's most hated enemy will still be addressed as "mon"... but most don't use it when addressing a Pokemon, That's how much they hate them. They hate them because they fear that scrambled code is something that could easily happen to them if they were ever unfortunate enough to fall through the barrier between worlds. The scramble is permanent and passed on throughout generations though if a Pokemon tried hard enough they can learn to speak their code, effectively their DNA, can never recover.

Humans are not native to this planet, although they don't know that. This is not Earth but rather a planet called Nut after the Egyptian goddess of the sky. These humans only know of Earth as a religious belief. These people worship the Egyptian gods, with added myths with roots in Japanese legends, but believe when you die your soul is taken back to Earth. If someone says "What on Earth" it's more along the lines of "what in heaven's name".

Though this series is not a romance there will be some love stories from time to time (and very occasionally rape scenes). Those will not be permanent relationships (how can they be when the stars are traveling all the time from city to city for gym battles and through the Digital world). Be aware that on this world practically everyone is bi, it is rare for someone to be strongly attached to only one gender. Although most still marry opposite genders same sex marriages are far more common then today's era and not thought of as odd by anyone. In fact people who only like one gender are considered the odd ones. Even with that I'm gay so be advised to what kind of relationships the boys will lean to.

Seto Kaiba, Bakura, and the Pharaoh have been reincarnated and will be travelling together. Other characters from the Yugioh franchise will make appearances as well but will not play a large role beyond being reoccurring or even one shot Characters. This story will mostly focus on the three destined ones and their split personalities (No Kaiba doesn't have one. It must be so lonely in his head. He is a sorcerer in addition to being a Pokemon trainer in order to compete with Zorc and The Pharaoh).

In this Yugi Mutou was a reincarnation of The Pharaoh Atem (I'm not sure if that was canon). In my story something went wrong with the creation of the puzzle and instead of awakening the memories of the person who solves it, as it was intended to, it split the memories of all the past lives into a single but separate entity. That entity will then be trapped inside the puzzle. That will happen again when our Future Yugi solves it and ONLY he can solve it because on some level he remembers creating it (To insure other people won't solve it the puzzle as a curse on it which usually results in the death of whoever tries unless they are the Pharaoh's reincarnation). The flaw even goes so far as to jumble up those memories of the entity which holds all the memories of all his hundreds of reincarnations (not all and not even most of the reincarnations found the puzzle and so their destiny went unfulfilled). How this gets jumbled up is random so the Pharaoh may recall glimpses of his other lives as well as his first and Yugi Mutou's life. The Pharaoh is based a little on the anime version, Season Zero, and even has some elements of LittleKuriboh's Yugioh Abridged. He is arrogant, ruthless, sadistic, willing to kill anyone who might get in the way of his overall goal but his goal is ultimately the safety of the planet. He also has a major love of games and makes outrageous bets on them. Such as gambling people's lives and sometimes even their souls in Shadow Games. He is an Anti-Hero but he is a Hero at his heart. Yugi is now Yugi Devlin. Duke Devlin (Yugi's older brother) is not a reincarnation but a very distant descendent who was named after the founder of a company. The original Duke built many companies but only one survived all this time (His company has survived the fall of governments, the movement of continents, and all this time remained in the family. This was only possible as a result of human technology at the time and our adaptability. However most records of the store's history are lost). Devlin's Trainer Dynamics are only found in cities with gyms and usually their only competitor being the local 'Mart'

Seto was born into the Kaiba family (not adopted) and yes he is both a reincarnation as well as a descendent of himself (my explanation is his soul is tied to the family line and how that happened will be explained later). He has two younger brothers (twins but not identical) and a baby sister. Both his parents are alive and come from old money. This new Kaiba is a jerk because he is far more intelligent then the people around him and can't help looking down at them, not because of any trauma. The Kaiba family is not related to Past Seto's adoptive father but they kept the name because Seto did in the show and they are descended from that Seto. The old Seto Kaiba from the show created Pokeballs at some point near the end of his life. After he died his company abandoned the practice of card game protectors as people were more interested in having real monsters battle and focused on producing Pokeballs. They even organized the first Pokemon tournament.

As for why Bakura has the same name I'm not even going to try to justify that because at the end of the tv series there were like a dozen Barukas and they all had the same name. He WILL be embodied with the evil spirit of Zorc but that will happen in chapter two so I won't spoil it. Zorc is based a lot off LittleKuriboh's Yami Bakura. Ryo Bakura will be fighting for control of his own body throughout the story and he will fail at times. He will not only hear Zorc whispering to him at all times but be aware of what the evil Zorc does well in control of his body, unless Zorc doesn't want him to know but Zorc seriously enjoys fucking with Bakura's head. Zorc is the main reason this story is rated so high, though I don't think it will be often he's going to do some pretty nasty things (Such as murder, rape, and the wearing of his victim's entrails. Sometimes all at the same time but I'll try not to go into too much detail about how gruesome it is)

###

**Next Time: Prepare for Blood**

Zorc's arrival , Yugi is given the Pieces of the Millennium Puzzle


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**WARNING:** This chapter has some gore combined with a quick but incredibly morbid rape scene, prepare yourself

**Chapter Two: Prepare for Blood**

Bakura sat at the table enjoying his meal. It was amazing that a nine year old could cook so well and he politely told his host so.

"All I did was read mom's old cookbooks" Yugi shrugged "Just followed the directions is all. That seems just beyond this one" he pointed his chopsticks at Duke "He instantly burns anything put into a pan... or pot, or toaster, or microwave"

"Enough from the shrimp" Duke rolled his eyes

"We survived mostly on the local restaurants until I learned to cook" Yugi cheekily added one last bit.

Duke silenced him by taking a slice of eel from his bowl and shoving it in the boy's mouth "Don't talk with your mouth full" he chided. His abysmal cooking skills seemed to strike a nerve. Odd with how goofy Duke acts and dressed Bakura didn't figure he had any sore spots.

Bakura didn't have any siblings so didn't really know if this was normal behavior. Of course Duke had raised Yugi so this might be better categorized as 'Fathe/son' behavior. Bakura didn't have a dad either. Didn't even know who the man was. His mother got knocked up during college at a party. She had to drop out and get a job, then two. It was just him and his mom for the longest time in that little apartment. Bakura hardly consider this a poor childhood dispite the pitying looks he got when he told this story. He has lots of friends in his hometown. Despite his mom working two jobs they talked every day. She even managed to make it to every one of his baseball games... It was just him now. She died in an accident at work well Bakura was wondering the world in the truest tradition of a Pokemon trainer. Her life insurance combined with the check the company gave him wasn't that much but it allowed him to continue his lifestyle. He only stayed in hotels if he really had to and he always loved camping anyway. As for food he survived mostly on those cheep nutrient drinks. The ones that were worth a whole day's protein, vitamins, and minerals in one bottle. Everything the body needs and if Bakura rationed it throughout the day he didn't get hungry. Bakura had gotten used to the poor taste. He usually got a temp job every few towns just to be safe. Do a little labor on farms or the gross jobs no one wants to do and in return get a nice handful of credits. He didn't need to but who knows when unexpected expenses might pop up. It was nearly a year until the next Tournament so he had plenty of time.

He was hardly the only trainer living that way and as proof Duke sold the drinks, camping gear programs, and gave away for free on his company website an up-to-date list of people willing to hire trainers in each town worldwide. People looking for temporary workers actually posted jobs on it. Bakura had gotten many jobs from that list long before he met Duke. Even back when he was in the Kanto Region. Devlin's Trainer Dynamics was a global franchise and probably sold trainer merchandise since before the invention of the Pokeball.

His friend's wealth really didn't phase Bakura beyond an admiration that the young man could manage it all. That lack of envy was probably the reason Duke warmed up to him so quickly.

Bakura looked over towards the pantry and saw his Pokemon munching down on the good food Yugi provided. They weren't used to something so tasty. All the various Eevee evolutions were happy even Sylveon.

Back when Bakura lived at home one of his neighbors' Jolteons laid about a mountain of eggs. After they hatched into a swarm of Eevees they gave them to Bakura as a present for his approaching journey as a trainer.

Bakura studied up on them so he could properly take care of them and found out that as a result of it's "Irregularly configured DNA" it had the ability to evolve into a wide variety of Pokemon. So He went to the local Devlin's shop and bought just as wide a variety of stones and Evolution Items. A Water Stone to get a Vaporeon, a Thunderstone to get a Jolteon, a Fire Stone to get a Flareon, a Dusk Stone to get an Umbreon, and a Shiny Stone to get a Sylveon. And for the girl Eevees he got a Leaf Stone for a Leafeon and a Moon Stone for an Espeon. He also bought an Ice Shard to get an Glaceon for another of the boys. Unlike with a stone which worked instantly that little guy wouldn't be able to evolve until he actually leveled up well holding the item. He still had one Eevee left over but that was all the evolutions Bakura knew of. He figured he might as well keep it as an Eevee that way he had the whole set. Besides he might need a normal type so it worked out perfectly. There were three other Eevees in the bunch but Bakura's neighbor kept them, which made it look awfully intentional that Bakura got a full set of the Eevee evolutions.

Okay maybe not perfectly as he knew it was against the official rules to carry more then six Pokemon. Unfortunately 'Little Boy Bakura' didn't have enough money leftover from his shopping spree to get a PC account to digitally store Pokemon. He also really didn't want to put the burden on his mom to take care of any of them. So he figured he would decide which six he'd use before each battle and that would keep him honest. Now that he had an official Duel Disk system that was much easier since it could hold only six Pokeballs. He didn't have a very advanced Watch so I couldn't store Pokemon and although he had enough money to make a regular PC account now it felt like he'd be abandoning his Pokemon.

He never really got into card battles before as the Duel Disk and the cards were so expensive. Now he had no choice and his unwillingness to join what he presumed was a fad is the reason he lost so badly when he faced the gym leader of this town. He was spending so long here (constantly battle the local trainers and exploring the woods to fight wild Pokemon) so that he could get used to battling with cards.

Before his shopping spree was up back in his hometown he also bought a bunch of stickers that would grow and shrink with the Pokeball. They were the symbols for each type of Pokemon. At that age Bakura was so inexperienced that he couldn't tell which Pokeball contained who without the stickers. He didn't have one of those belts you can attach Pokeballs to in order to place them in an order he could remember. Now he didn't need the stickers or a belt to remember. He somehow just knew which was which. He did buy a belt later as it was convenient and kept the stickers on the Pokeballs because he'd grown accustomed to them. Now he kept six of his Pokemon in the Duel Disk and the other three on his belt with his deck... which was just a generic Starter Deck.

The last thing he did on his spree as a child, and the reason he was too dead broke to get a PC account, was buy a bag of Rare Candies. Rare Candy was expensive and usually sold at only one a piece, and even that was too many credits for most trainers. His mom was furious with him because he not only had to spend all his money to get it but had 'borrowed' some of her own (which he ended up paying back with a trip over her knee). It was all very necessary though as all his Pokemon at the time were just babies and only had a power level of one. Bakura desperately needed the candies as they increase a Pokemon's level. He evenly spread out the candies to his Pokemon up until the Sylveon stole the bag from him and devoured the rest. Mom said it served him right as the cute little Sylveon skyrocketed in level.

Sylveon had been a pain ever since. He was too high level to have any respect for Bakura. He obviously loved Bakura and would demonstrate that by cuddling up to him and was even very needy for fingers to stroke his fur but that wasn't respect. He loved to fight but would never listen to any of Bakura's 'advice'. Sometimes, too show his opinion of Bakura's strategy, he would do the exact opposite or walk away entirely (though the latter didn't happen very often as he did love to fight). Well traveling Sylveon would run off and start his own battles with wild Pokemon (though he always came back and thankfully he didn't do that very often well in a town).

It was worse now with the cards as sometimes if Bakura laid down a weapon or armor card Sylveon would disregard them or out right destroy them if he was in a foul mood. Bakura had to use spell cards, most notably Power-Ups (cards that would increase strength, or agility, or speed, and so on). With how uncoordinated they were with each other during a fight Bakura learned early on not to use trap cards as Sylveon would accidentally get caught in them himself. Mostly Bakura just had to stand back and let Sylveon do his own thing with occasional help from spell cards.

Normally Bakura wouldn't use Sylveon but for gym battles he had no choice. He was by far Bakura's strongest Pokemon. Each victory in a gym only made Sylveon stronger so it was unlikely Bakura would ever gain the creature's respect. Truth of the matter, Bakura was content with the Pokemon's affections... though admittedly it would be nice if Sylveon would listen to him occasionally.

Finished with his food Sylveon walked over to Bakura and snaked his head under the hand that was resting on the boy's lap. With that expectant look in the creature's eye Bakura sighed and began petting him.

"You really shouldn't indulge him so much" Duke advised

"Probably" Bakura shrugged and kept on petting. Truthfully he liked the fact Sylveon was so needy. It was a welcomed contradiction with the rest of his personality.

After dinner Bakura gathered his Pokemon. He returned them to their Pokeballs then put most of then back inside his Duel Disk. Attaching Sylveon's Pokeball to his belt Bakura said his goodbyes.

"You know you can stay here" Duke offered "It's far too awful a night to be camping"

"I have a pretty good tent program" Bakura smiled "besides I need to get to the lake. The higher level Water Pokemon like to swim up to the surface in weather like this. Some even come onto the shore. It will be good training"

Yugi appeared to be making a mental note of that.

"It's a long way to the lake" Duke tried again

"So was the Mart" Bakura saw Yugi blush at the reminder of his new underpants "Don't worry I've walked further in this kind of weather"

"Well if you're sure" Duke sighed

Bakura went over to his duffel bag which was lying on a chair. Bakura took out a heavy gray robe from the sack.

"You have REAL clothes!" Yugi exclaimed in shock

"Just some robes" Bakura shrugged putting the traditional traveler's robes on "The battery on my watch sometimes runs out, it can be a long way between cities on foot"

Duke was giving Yugi a clear 'I told you so' look well Bakura put his backpack back on

"Besides" Bakura continued "The fabric of real robes is much better for rain. It's heavier sure but keeps you warm and dry"

Yugi nodded listening to the trainer's advice more urgently then his brother's. Bakura was an actual trainer who traveled the world. Duke was a shop keeper. Not to say what Duke did wasn't hard but he didn't have any real experience in the life of a trainer. He didn't even own a Pokemon! Yugi admittedly would often dismiss what Duke said on the subject. Ignoring the fact that Duke did talk to a lot of trainers and had to know what it was like in order to have his stores properly stocked.

"Come back when you're done" Duke said to Bakura "I'm going to be opening this place up as a hotel for trainers, been upgrading all these empty rooms. It be a big favor to me if I had someone test out the chambers. I also picked out which chambers will be good to set up shop. I'll need some help moving all of mine and Yugi's stuff into the rooms come morning"

Now it was Bakura's turn to sigh "Yeah okay. See you guys later"

Once he was gone Yugi looked up at Duke "When you do all that?"

"About five seconds from now" Duke smiled "Come on help me pick out our new chambers"

###

Bakura figured he was being played but was thankful to his friend for letting him stay the night. Just because he set up in weather like this before doesn't mean he wanted to.

Pulling the hood of his robes up he walked outside. The rain heavily beat down on him as the wing assaulted him from the left. Thunder cracked as lighting struck the Ground a few miles out.

It was hard to see put Bakura could made out figures standing in the rain not far ahead. Shrugging he supposed he wasn't the only one crazy enough to willingly endure this weather. He'd have to walk by them in order to leave the city. Doing so with no mind he didn't notice the bat that cracked him in the back of the head.

Groaning Bakura opened his eyes. He was in the ruins. His Duel Disk was cast off to the side... along with his watch. He was wearing nothing but his blue undergarments. He tried to get up but chains attached to his wrist prevented from doing more then sit.

A group of men wearing dark robes stood around him.

"Is it him?" one of the men asked as another held out a strange device over Bakura's head "Is it finally him?" the man asked excitedly

The device made some soft odd beeping sound that slowly grew loader.

"It's him" The man holding the device confirmed "His soul is compatible to contain our Lord's essence, it's held it before. My brothers" he smiled lowering the device and taking a step back. He outstretched his other hand pointing out Bakura "I give you..." for some reason he stopped talking for dramatic effect "The Thief King"

The men laughed, some cheered.

"I've never stolen anything in my life!" That was the only conclusion his dazed mind could come up with. That these people must think he stole something from them.

The men ignored him and began to chant something in a long dead language. They gracefully moved their hands in unison. It was then Bakura noticed the markings on the floor. A star with 13 points drawn out with strange symbols. Each of the men were standing directly on a point. Their feet positioned perfectly. Suddenly the men began to shut and raise their hands. The shadows around the symbols began to move. Bakura could swear they were creeping towards him. The men snapped their arms back down, fingers stretched out pointing towards him. That's when the shadows charged. They leaped into the air and pierced him. They forced their way into his pours and through his eyes. It was cold, so cold it burned. Purple flames burned away his clothes and blistered his flesh. Bakura shrieked out at pain he could never have imagined. There was something else. Something else hidden in the pain. A whisper that creeped into his mind, laughing. Suddenly that laugh ripped out of his own mouth. Screaming and laughing at the same time. Slowly those screams died down until only a sly chuckle could be heard.

The man stopped their chant and one stepped forward in front of the naked teen "My Lord Zorc, welcome back to this realm"

"You lot seem to quite enjoy the dramatics" The voice coming from Bakura's mouth was lower, more sinister, with a British accent. Not that any of the mortals in the room new what Britain was "I admit I have a certain flare for them myself" the shadows around them once again began to move as they wrapped around the iron chains forcing them to decay. The metal fell in pieces on the floor and the shadows calmed down. Standing the boils on his skin instantly healed with no evidence they ever happened. The being they called Zorc smiled a pleasant grin that gave unnatural shivers down the men's spin. He gracefully walked until he was less then a centimeter from the leader's face and warmly placed his hand on the man's shoulder. Zorc flashed a reassuring grin before crashing his other hand into the man's chest.

The men around him took a step back, fear written all over their faces as the crimson fluid gushed around Zorc's arm.

"It's been so long since I felt the warmth of blood against my skin" spoke Zorc as he slowly withdrew his hand, taking the man's heart out with it. The veins were still attached as it continued to pulse in the demon's hand. With his other hand still grasping the man's shoulder he held the man up, refusing to let him fall and die "So long since I enjoyed the taste of a still beating heart" saliva pooled in his mouth as he took a bite, blood gushing around his lips and chin.

Laughing he let got of the heart and gave the man a gentle push allowing him to fall on his back.

"Master?" another man approached "We found it" he pointed at a golden puzzle box laying with Bakura's discarded things.

"Good" Zorc grinned "Now I need only one last thing from you, my loyal servants. It's rather important I find out the range of this new body, so kindly... die"

He threw a punch into the man's face, breaking his nose. The shadows around the only exist turned into solid bars locking the men in.

Zorc launched himself at the man, ripping out organs and coating himself in blood. This body moved quickly. Zorc observed through the men's screams. It was fast and strong. All that walking kept it fit.

One of his 'loyal' servants pulled out a pistol from his robes and aimed it at Zorc's head. Anticipating the shot Zorc easily dogged then grabbed the man's gun hand "naughty, naughty" he seized the man's throat next. He jerked the hand into the man's face, breaking his arm "these are quite illegal aren't they? Only police and soldiers are allowed to have them. Are you a soldier? Well I guess you are in a sense. My soldier" Zorc forced the gun to point at the man's head "Show me how good you are at obeying orders... Pull the trigger"

The man's eyes turned about the room. At his brothers laying on the floor, their insides laying beside them. Some of them were still alive. Then, fearing what would happen if he didn't, he obeyed the order.

Zorc laughed tossing the lifeless corpses to the side then sighed in content "That was fun, wouldn't you agree" His eyes turned back at the star, at the intangible spirit that only his eyes could see. The spirit had one hand over his mouth and another under his chin, staring in shock at what just happened "Together again aye Bakura" Zorc grinned then turned his eyes onto one of the dying men "I suppose there is a little more to this body I should test out"

He walked over to the man gagging on his own blood with entrails hanging out his gut. Bending down Zorc pulled the entrails out a little further then draped them over his neck like I scarf. He softly kissed the man's lips getting the taste of blood. Tearing off the man's clothes he tenderly shoved his own cock into the man. Slowly moving his hips he laughed at the spirit "How does it feel to lose your virginity Bakura"

Zorc returned to tenderly kissing the man and slowly increasing the speed of his hips. He gently caressed the man's skin and delicately kissed his neck. A gurgling sound caught his attention.

"Let me show you how merciful your god is" Zorc whispered sweetly increasing his hips "Let's send you to the afterlife in ahhhhhhhh" Zorc moaned as his body shivered and let loose. He frowned pulling out his blood covered cock "Honestly Bakura when was the last time you jerked off? The guy's not even dead yet. My apologies for being so quick my friend" Zorc smiled as he snapped the man's neck.

Tearing the entrails from the body so he could move more freely he walked over to Bakura "Why so sad my friend?" he asked "This is a happy occasion" hearing the last of the men die Zorc said "Perhaps you need a moment to fully appreciate our reunion"

Bakura suddenly found himself back in control of his body. Looking at his hands he started to hyperventilate. He ripped the entrails off his body and started rubbing at the blood in an attempt to remove it but it was just too much. Falling to his knees his stomach emptied itself and he curled up into a ball tears leaking from his eyes.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that completely trapped by shock. Finally he began to make sense of the noise in the background. Turning his head to the source his eyes grew wide at the sight. A hideous monster, gigantic and reeking of evil, was towering over him. Horns and fangs and pure red eyes, even its cock was vicious. Spiky with the head of a dragon that had teeth of its own. The demon was laughing so deep and vile. It spoke though its mouth did not move. A low demonic voice matched only by its form "Aren't you going to welcome me home Bakura?" it wasn't in the room. Bakura didn't hear it with his ears. It was inside his head.

Spying the discarded gun Bakura got up and ran after it. Grabbing the mechanism, and with hope that the creature couldn't stop him, he pointed at and and fired... The creature just laughed as the bullet harmlessly went through it as if it was a patch of fog. Bakura stared at the creature in shock before firing again. The only damage the bullets did was against the wall behind the monster... it wasn't there. The monster was just a phantom. A reflection of... the beast inside of him. Getting an overwhelming impulse the barrel of the gun found itself pressed against Bakura's own temple and without hesitation nor thought at all the trigger was pulled. He was dead... for all of an hour. Slowly his tossed out brains and bits of his skull slithered back in. Even his hair reattached itself. Eyes no longer glazed over he blinked looking back at the creature.

"You really didn't think it be that easy did you?"

###

Yugi helped move his things into his new room. The chambers they picked out were amazing and remarkably long-term. Yugi had never even been in here before. The chambers consisted of five rooms. The living area, which was comprised of the living room and a small kitchen, three bedrooms, and a bathroom. It was like its own little apartment. Duke said he wanted to turn one of the bedrooms into a study but Yugi suspected it was if Duke ever had kids. He had been dating this one girl for a couple years now. With Yugi grown and soon off on his own adventure Duke could finally have a chance for a more traditional family. Yugi knew that's what the girl wanted at least.

Yugi heard a knock at the door to the chambers. Odd seeing as it was open. Peeking his head out of his room he saw Bakura standing at the front door and Duke making his way towards him.

"You're late" said Duke sternly as if he was talking to Yugi.

"Sorry" Bakura rubbed the back of his head "the storm got a little rougher then I expected. I had to find shelter and wait it out but... I kind of feel asleep" he blushed

Duke sighed "Well you're here now so. Come on I need your help with the beds. Yugi!" he suddenly called not even looking in the boy's direction "stop eavesdropping and put your stuff away" Yugi ducked back into the, his, room.

Despite Yugi being completely plugged in to his watch he did have a lot of real stuff. As a result he had to pick and choose what stuff could be taken with him. His favorite stuffed Pikachu from his favorite cartoon for example. Would he really want to use up storage space in his watch for a toy?

Duke bought him not only a lot of real things but a lot of organic things. His bed, pillows, sheets, furniture were all made from the genuine resources of the planet instead of artificial materials. Maybe Duke just liked the feel or the novelty of organic things like wood. Duke had the money and could afford to spend it on luxury items for small children.

It didn't matter. Regardless Yugi was about to be far too old for toys, real or digital. He was going to be ten soon. Legally an adult and old enough to challenge gyms or enter Pokemon contest. Too old for toys and cartoons. Yugi considered deleting or maybe just storing those programs into his main PC account instead of his watch. Shaking his head he realized he couldn't do it. He couldn't part with his beloved toys no matter how grown up he was. Hugging Pikachu he wished he could take him with him.

"Hey Squirt" Duke's voice directly behind the boy forced him to blush at being caught in the act "Get out for a second"

Yugi turned and saw his brother and Bakura holding the wooden frame of the bed. As the boy started to move to put Pikachu off to the side Duke called "Just get out and take Pikachu with you" Yugi did as he was told, needing to duck under the bed they were holding in order to do it.

###

Yugi sat in the kitchen, his stuffed Pikachu on the table. He must have spaced out for longer then he realized as in walked Bakura.

"You done with the bed already?" Yugi blinked

"It's been like an hour" Bakura laughed "All your furniture as been moved in. We're taking a break then moving Duke's stuff. Hey Yugi" Bakura smiled taking his bag off "I got you something" he pulled out a small golden box and handed it to the child

Opening up the surprisingly heavy top he found a bunch of golden pieces with strange hydrographics on them.

"What's this?" Yugi blinked again

"It's a puzzle, figured you might want to give it a try"

"Looks hard"

"There's a trick too it. Don't try to solve it instead try to remember where the pieces go" at Yugi's blank expression Bakura encouraged "Go on give it a try"

Shrugging Yugi pulled out two pieces and tried to force them together but they just wouldn't go.

"Empty your mind" Bakura advised walking behind him "Dig deep inside and remember"

Closing his eyes for a moment and trying out what Bakura suggested he hallowed out his mind. Opening them back up he saw two different pieces in the box that just felt right. Taking them out he smiled when they clicked together. Getting more pieces he became shocked at how easy this was. While he was nearly finished he didn't notice Bakura taking a knife from the kitchen, nor the devilish smile on his face.

Raising the knife Bakura was struggling not to laugh. Suddenly he screamed dropping his weapon.

Yugi turned to find Bakura holding his head in pain "You okay?" he asked worried

"Sorry just watching you do that gives me a headache" Bakura groaned in agony

Yugi smiled figuring Bakura was playing "I've always been good at puzzles" he said proudly turning back

###

This whole time Bakura watched helplessly as the demon called Zorc moved his body like a puppeteer. He screamed and begged his friends to hear him but they could not. He couldn't figure out why the creature was helping move furniture but after the evil that he saw he knew some darker plot was in motion. It all come together when Zorc handed Yugi the puzzle. For some reason Zorc couldn't solve it himself. Maybe he needed someone innocent to do it for him. Whatever that puzzle was it must be evil. Bakura couldn't let the demon have it. The last straw and perhaps the biggest motivation was when Zorc picked up the knife and headed towards Yugi. Within his mind Bakura tackled the giant and forced him further in, far too deep for him to maintain control.

Now Bakura was back in his body with one important thought 'run'. He had to get out of here, away from his friends, away from any living soul! He'd find a rock somewhere at sea and trap himself on it. Let himself starve to death. Give the beast no choice but to let him die.

He stood up tall and slowly walked out of the kitchen as to not alert the boy. He nearly made it out of the building but Duke stopped him at the door.

"Where are you going?" Duke asked "I still need your help"

"Just going out to try my hand against the gym leader again. I'll be right back" He lied most thoroughly. He had no intention of fighting the gym leader or coming back.

Duke sighed "Okay but first I got to ask you a huge favor, been doing that a lot recently"

"I don't mind" Bakura answered immediately and truthfully only realizing after the words left his mouth that he just signed up to stay here longer

"Okay no easy way to say this so here it goes. I want you to take Yugi with you when you go" Duke spat out

"Ex-excuse me?"

"He's just a kid. I know he's going to be ten soon and boys that age leave home all the time... but he's just a kid. I'd feel a lot better if he was traveling with an experienced trainer and I know you're a reliable guy I can count on"

"T-that really isn't a good idea" That was a HORRIBLE idea. Zorc just tried to kill Yugi! Bakura couldn't take a chance like that!

"I know you like to travel on your own but Yugi's a great kid. He'll be hardly any trouble at all and on the RARE occasion that he does act up you have my permission to spank him" Duke spoke quickly noticing Bakura shake his head he tried a different tactic "Of course you'll be well compensated. I can't exactly give that money to Yugi. He'll spend it all on cards and starve to death on the road. I'll need to make sure you have enough credits to keep him feed. Oh and naturally you've seen how the boy cooks. It will be a nice treat after you've had years drinking nothing but those nasty health drinks"

"I'm sorry Duke but I really must decline. I know nothing about children" Bakura was trying to keep his voice calm put failed to keep the sorrow from letting down his friend

Noticing that Duke sighed "Alright" he sounded disappointed "Guess I'll just have to hire some stranger to look after him"

"I am sorry Duke" Bakura swore before making a break for it.

Duke watched run and somewhere deep inside he doubted he's ever see that boy again.

###

Bakura ran out of the city, many would assume in the wrong direction. He needed to get back to the ocean, away from people. He could free his Pokemon at the shore. Sylveon could take care of his siblings in the wild.

Bakura would get on the first boat out of here and head for Kanto. He didn't plan on making it there. Once he was deep in the ocean he'd jump off the boat. If anyone tried to stop him or scream 'overboard' he'd just tell them he was a Water Pokemon trainer and wanted to explore the sea. He would just stay out there in the ocean, lost forever. Zorc could never hurt anyone again.

His plans were ruined shortly after leaving the towns check point office. A purple fog erupted in front of him and there stood Yugi with his Gastly. He looked different. His features were slightly sharper and his eyes appeared older but the most noticeable difference was he had grown at least a foot. Bakura noticed none of this as he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts.

"Y-Yugi" Bakura stuttered "I didn't know Gastly could teleport"

"Strange you think my little friend here did that" Yugi's voice was deeper, more mature, with an air of elegance to it "I'm afraid I can't let you leave"

"Look I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye but I really-"

"You can't beat him on your own" Yugi interrupted "I can feel him in you, my oldest enemy. How long do you think you can hold him back?"

Bakura stayed silent a moment as he put the pieces together. Yugi's form, his voice, the puzzle complete and held against the boy's neck by a black choke collar with golden studs and trim.

"No..." Bakura gasped

"Only I can beat him" Yugi held up his hand and that purple gas moved like living shadows from his palm. It burst out and hit a nearby tree, completely vaporizing it.

As he put his hand down Bakura ran towards him. He grabbed the creature and gave him a little shake "Get out of him. Get out of him this instant!" he demanded the spirit

"I'm afraid that's not possible" spoke the spirit "I've always been here. The puzzle just let me out. I mean no harm to the boy or to you" he held up his hands in a peaceful gesture "Only Zorc should fear me. I can stop him when you can't. I can fight him when you fail, and I'm the only one who can. Go me" He chuckled "Hide away if you like but he will get out again and if I'm not around lots of people are going to die"

###

Duke stood at the counter watching the door. It was Sunday so his little shop was closed despite having vertically no business the other night. He went back to opening Booster Packs and sorting out the cards. Hearing the door chime regardless of the 'closed' sign he looked back up and saw Yugi standing there with Bakura. The little guy must have convinced him not to leave.

"That was fast" Duke remarked "How'd you get outside anyway" he hadn't seen his kid brother leave or even come down stairs.

The boy looked puzzled for a moment "I don't know" he admitted in that high pitched not yet broken voice of his.

Duke just shook his head as the boy ran back upstairs "Is that my choker?" he called after him

"It's mine now" the boy hollered back

"Thief!" Duke screamed with mock anger before turning to Bakura "Should I ask about that pyramid thing hanging from his neck?"

"Probably not" Bakura answered shame faced as he walked up to the counter.

"Weren't you going off to challenge the gym leader, seemed rather urgent" Duke made another remark

Bakura shook his head, staying silent a moment "I've decided... to reconsider your offer"

Duke smiled, Yugi had obviously done more then convince him not to leave "It was his cooking wasn't it" he joked

###

**Next Time: Never Stopping**

Bakura fights with the notion of continuing his life despite being possessed by a demon. Kaiba comes into town and faces the Pharaoh in a Pokemon Battle.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Never Stopping**

Seto sat on the back of a massive Charizard as the beast flew him through the air. He hoped his work had been enough to get the other regions to sign on. He was finally done with press conferences and talk shows to promote, and sometimes defend, the use of cards in official battles.

When he first set out he wanted to take his family's chopper with him or at least one of the cars but his father said that didn't hold to the spirit of the adventure. It didn't matter after he caught a Charmander and trained it up. Charmander evolves very quickly so it was easy. Now he could just ride on it's back. Before that he cheated a bit and used his Dratini and The Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Just because cards were illegal to use in battles during his early years as a trainer didn't mean he couldn't abuse the hell out of it.

Back then you needed a large field generator to use cards and those were rare outside cities as they were the size of a tennis court. So Seto modified the projectors of his clothes and watch and used that to play cards. The field generator was better as it simulated different areas. The complex panel it used even allowed you to battle with multiple Pokemon under your control. Regardless of the flaws he showed a lot of other trainers how to rig their own projectors. How to store the cards inside the watch and use a specially designed App to project the items in it. He even created an attachment for the watch so you could plug your PokeBall to it and transfer the information from the App directly into the PokeBall. It had a few glitches and digivolution cards didn't work with it as the projectors weren't powerful enough but it was still fun. Eventually he designed a 'Duel Field' system of his own and carried two of them in his watch so he could battle with other trainers. It was a long board with powerful projectors and stands modelled after the panel the field generators used. It could be a pain to set up but was definitely worth it. Word got around and by the time he got to Giovanni's gym to challenge him the man had heard of his system. Despite it being illegal the man insisted they use Seto's system and he LOVED it. He gave the young Kaiba heir a gym badge and a job. Build him something better using his resources, and Seto did. A Duel 'Disk' that was an actual disk that slide onto your arm. It was such a primitive thing in comparison to what he built when he got wind that the higher ups actually wanted to legitimize cards. Seto even got the rights to install a Pokedex for it. It was designed to be mounted just above your portable PC with the cards placed on a blade that was right next to your forearm. The Duel Disk came in different colors for marketing purposes. Seto was actually working on trying to incorporate a portable PC inside the Duel Disk as well so that there wasn't so much clutter on your arm. It was harder to get the rights to though and just getting through the red tape would have pushed back the release date by months. He needed to act quickly in the design. The tournaments had been waiting for the public release of the new Duel Disk before announcing that cards were permitted in official battles. It all depended on Seto making the device in time to the league's specifications... with his added flare.

Seto Kaiba had always loved building things much like his dad. His dad enjoyed restoring old cars and let Seto help him. Seto even constructed an entire engine all by himself when he was 5. Then he moved on to computers and digital projectors. 'Progeny' 'Genius' those were words used to describe him but they had no idea just how brilliant he was.

Looking down at his belt he saw the golden rod attached to it. The rod had some kind of weird eye thing as its head. It was a gift from 'Santa' on his 10th birthday. Neither of his parents knew where it came from much less who sent it but they didn't give it much thought. They didn't know what Seto had learned about it. Whoever or whatever had given it to him knew far more undoubtedly.

It was powerful, bending energies around it, and it lead Seto to study more. He hunted down books and scrolls, ancient rubbish nonsense to most, and learned. He knew a secret. Magic was real and it wasn't as mystical as people thought. It was fueled by science. Looking over at his hand and simply out of boredom he allowed fire to dance in his palm. Using his mind to interact with the universe around him he could vibrate particles fast enough to create fire. He could even look deep within himself and use his own energies, the electrical impulses that controlled his body, to cast spells. He could bend reality to his will. Though the rod was an incredible amplifier he didn't need it. He still had no idea what the rod was, a wand maybe? Like in the movies? Was there some group of mages that sent it to him knowing he could use magic? He knew of the mystics that researched the old arts much like he did but as far as he knew they were scattered with only the occasional gym offering a place of study. It didn't matter as the rod was his and he'd discover its origins eventually.

What gave him his abilities was the fact his brain was more evolved them most, and that wasn't arrogance as he had scans of his head to prove it. The doctor he'd seen wrote a book on it as 'the next phase of human evolution'. Man didn't even know a 5th of the things Seto could do but he wrote a book on the beauty of his brain.

For all his brains Seto was rather weak physically. He doubted if he could lift a hundred pounds, but then again he never tried. Why would he when he could lift a thousand with his mind. He did know martial arts, his mother insisted on it when he said he wanted to be a Pokemon trainer, but the style he learned was more focused on grace and speed. He knew the best places to hit someone to cause maximum pain with the tiniest bit of pressure. He could even knock someone out by grabbing a spot between their neck and shoulder. He could even paralyze someone by hitting the right nerves in the correct order. It was cool and all but to be honest he didn't have much use for the knowledge and had never applied it outside a lesson or friendly sparring match. He didn't even win most of those. Still he'd probably be pretty deadly compared to someone who didn't know how to fight. His mother would be so proud. It was a dying art with Pokemon battles.

Seeing the city below Seto killed the flame in his hand and ordered Charizard down. He was still a ways from the city but if he could see it that means there would be other trainers in the fields below, practicing in preparation for gym battles.

He did try to walk, he wasn't THAT lazy after all, and needed to for his own Pokemon's sake. He didn't usually catch wild Pokemon or bother to battle them but he needed to sharpen his skills against trainers. Seto only got new Pokemon by buying them from breeders. Purely Dragon types, primary or secondary. He loved the rarity and the power of them. Focusing on one type of Pokemon was best well battling with cards as you could center your deck around that type and have it more likely that the cards in your hand could benefit any of your Pokemon. If Seto was going to limit himself to one type he'd make it something as majestic as dragons.

###

**At Devlin's Trainer Dynamics**

There was a banging at the door waking Bakura from his sleep. The bright morning sun shining in his face from the window. He had finally taken Duke up on his offer to spend the night, and every night that followed. He was staying in the study of their private chambers after helping move a bed in there from one of the others. Duke had insisted and Bakura didn't want to be alone right now however much that need contradicted his earlier desire that week. Maybe Duke sensed that? Either way Bakura wouldn't risk being away from Yugi. He didn't know if he could trust the spirit inside the boy but it was his only option.

"Bakura!" He heard Yugi's voice from behind the door "Get up" the lad called excitedly. It wasn't every day a boy turns ten.

"Wakey, wakey Bakura" laughed the demon as it stared at him. It was smaller now, small enough to fit in the room but still easily 8 feet. It must have the ability to change size or maybe it was just because it wasn't really there. Bakura couldn't stop seeing it. It was like a phantom stocking him. Even his dreams were filled with the beast's image. Horrible things and bloody battles across ancient empires. He wasn't sure if they were real or just the demon messing with his mind.

Bakura emptied his thoughts on the subject and got out of bed. Completely ignoring the monster which it found absolutely hilarious. It hadn't tried to take over his body again, not with the other spirit so close and aware of Its presents. Whether he could trust the spirit or not the demon clearly hated him... and feared him. Now that was a thought that brought Bakura hope. Whatever this demon was it could feel fear and so could be defeated, maybe even destroyed. Then again if this spirit was something such a brutal monster feared maybe Bakura should fear him to. Bakura had to find away to rid himself and Yugi of these things that infected their souls.

Why, if this demon hated the spirit so much, did it give Yugi the puzzle? The puzzle had obviously awoken the spirit. Perhaps it needed the puzzle for something? Needed it desperately enough to risk the wrath of the spirit?

Shaking his head Bakura stood in the middle of the room and fiddled with his clothing projector. It was a really cheap one and could only store a hundred pieces of clothing. It didn't even have the option of saving them into outfits. You had to look through all the clothes individual and manually select each piece. That wasn't so bad. It just added a few extra seconds when getting dressed. He turned off his pjs well his back was to the creature to give himself some level of modesty. Looking through his limited clothing options on the watch he activated a yellow dress shirt, sleek blue pants, a matching blue jacket for the suite, some yellow socks, and white and blue sneakers.

"Oh very fancy" The demon grinned

"Thank you" Bakura answered automatically then blushed as the demon laughed

"Oh Bakura it's about time we talked" replied Zorc "I've been so very lonely"

"You're not real"

"What a rude thing to say" the demon sounded hurt but the smile on it's face revealed otherwise "You know I am. We've been together so long and we will be together longer still"

"I'll find a way to be rid of you" Bakura declared

The creature chuckled "You always say that but even if you somehow manage it you're mine, now and forever. I always come back... through you"

"Bakura" Yugi called through the door "Who are you talking to?"

Ignoring the demon Bakura opened the door "Can't a man speak gibberish to himself without everyone assuming he's crazy"

Yugi giggled "You're funny"

"Don't go spreading such slander. If anyone ask I am the most boring man on the planet" Bakura mock scolded but smiled at the small boy in the end "Happy Birthday Yugi"

"Thanks Bakura" Yugi grinned "I'm going to challenge the gym leader after breakfast"

"Why so soon? You can wait a little while" Bakura made the mistake of saying

"I've been waiting FOREVER!" Yugi whined "I don't want to wait another minute. I don't even want to wait for breakfast but Duke's making me! Come on, we have to eat" The little boy dragged out of the room and towards the kitchen where Duke stood burning eggs.

"Errr... I can do it" Yugi offered

"You're not cooking on your birthday" Duke instead before giving up and tossing the pan in the sink "Let's go out to eat" he suggested turning off the stove.

Huckabeedrill was a popular restaurant and one normal people absolutely needed a reservation for. Duke was in no way normal. He just strolled in and the hostess who was about to give a table to someone else gave it to Duke instead, apologizing but largely ignoring the other customer's complaint. Then their waiter paid extra close attention to them and seemed to psychicly know the second Duke's party was ready to order. Then there was the preparation of the food. The head chef dropped everything he was doing and worked on their meal personally. Putting other people's meals on the backburner to focus on Duke. Bakura was overwhelmed to say the least.

The food itself was amazing and tickled their taste buds. It was an elegant breakfast and more of a family buffet them a restaurant dish. Odd since they didn't put out anything like this for anyone else. They each were given an empty plate and large bowels of food were deposited before them. One of the bowls was filled with scrambled 'Eggs' with chopped peppers. It wasn't made from real eggs as that would just be disturbing. The only real eggs on the planet were Pokemon eggs, which it was immoral to eat (even though some people do), and fish eggs, which any child would find gross. These 'Eggs' came from the 'Egg Berry' which was actually a soccer ball sized nut that grew on tropical trees. The nut was filled with a yellow goo that became solid when cooked. You could boil it, fry it, or 'scramble' it by moving the goo around with a spatula until it became a bunch of solid chunks. It was also pretty good raw but a little messy. There was a bowel of grilled eel (which Bakura come to understand was Yugi's favorite) and another of bacon (which was pretty much just long strips of specially prepared eel as beyond fish no other primitive animals existed on this planet. Pokemon were far from primitive and proved that with a few being able to learn Japanese). There was toast and jam and a huge stack of pancakes. The three went for a home style free for all and put their own food on their plates. Then after it was all gone the restaurant owner come up and gave Yugi a big chocolate cake combined with the happy birthday song.

Then Bakura came to understand why they were all acting this way "You're giving them 10000 credits in tips?" his jaw fell to the floor

"They did a good job" Duke shrugged sliding his card on the waiter's pad "Besides they pool their tips here. Giving them the standard 1000 credits isn't nearly enough to be divided up like that" he failed to see they had the potential to actually make more money pooling their tips.

"You just gave them the full price of our meal" Bakura shook his head, it was already an expensive meal

"Could you reserve one of the tables at the windows?" Duke asked the waiter "This one" he pointed at Yugi "Is abandoning me to go off and be a Pokemon trainer. Looks like I'll once again be dependent on you guys for all my meals"

The young waiter smiled brightly "Of course Mr. Devlin" he bowed and went off to tell his boss

"I imagine Yugi learning to cook was bad for business" Bakura shook his head

"We still come here every so often" Duke shrugged "Mostly holidays and birthdays. Now PRESENTS!" he reached down and picked up two boxes and handed them over to Yugi.

The boy gleefully opened up the wrapping of the first to find a bunch of individual cards in a few plastic sheets for binders.

"They're all ghost types to help with Gastly" Duke informed well Yugi cheered "Thanks Duke!" as he went on to the next one. He screamed seeing the new official model Duel Disk "Also, as it is with card battles, it's very important to focus on just one type of Pokemon so I bought these from the local breeder" he pulled out two PokeBalls from his pocket and handed them over. Yugi stared at them in his hand with wide eyes "Sorry I couldn't get more but the breeder didn't have a very good selection of ghost type. I gave them some TMs but their still only have a power level of one. You need to work with them yourself to help them improve. It's an important part of being a trainer"

Yugi continued to stare at his hand until he pounced over the table and enveloped his brother in a hug "You're the best brother ever!" he swore

Duke hugged the boy back "Aren't you going to see what I got you before you go claiming that?"

Yugi scrambled off the table and onto the floor before releasing both his Pokemon. The second they appeared the boy enveloped them in a hug. They were a young Drifloon and Misdreavus.

"They're quite cute little critters for ghost" Bakura acknowledged

"Breeders tend to focus on the cute ones" Duke shrugged "I guess they just sell better"

"Gastly, stop hiding in your ball and come out" Yugi demanded throwing the ball into the air and out popped a sleepy Gastly "Gastly these are your new friends, Drifloon and Misdreavus"

Gastly stared at them a moment before giving a terrifying roar then, as the two new Pokemon cowered back in fear, he burst into hysterical playful laughter. He gave them both a happy lick and laughed more at their confusion.

"Just ignore him" Yugi rolled his eyes "He's got a weird sense of humor"

"Yugi" The boy looked over at Duke "Bakura got you a present to" Bakura's eyes widened in fear, he certainly hadn't thought to bring the boy anything. Not with the week he'd been having "He's agreed to take you on as his apprentice. Show you the ropes and travel along side you on the road"

Yugi's eyes widened "R-really?" Bakura nodded and the boy suddenly pounced on him "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. You won't regret it, I promise! I'll cook and clean and do everything you tell me!"

"I'm sure little Yugi will do everything in his power to behave" Duke smiled

"I will!" the boy promised too excited to remember that a young man of ten should be insulted by a comment like that.

"Yugi this is important" Duke got the boy's full attention "Since Bakura is doing such a large favor for this family I legally made him my representative of you" Yugi's eyes got so wide it was comical "Do you understand?"

Yugi nervously chewed his bottom lip before nodding.

"I removed your instructor's authenticity since you won't be going to school anymore but medical personnel and police still have the right to bust your bottom so you better behave. As my representative Bakura can stop them or even give other people permission to discipline you on top of whatever punishment he gives you. You WILL behave, got it?"

"Yes sir... so will Bakura still teach me stuff?"

"So course he will" Duke smiled "He'll show you exactly how to be the best Pokemon trainer but in order to teach you he needs to be able to look out for your best interest, understand?"

"Yeah..."

"Good boy"

When they left the restaurant Yugi began running around his fellow adults in circles as he chased his Pokemon or let them chase him.

"Sorry Sir we're closed" Duke called seeing a man dressed in a white overcoat standing out in front of his shop.

"I think you can make an exception" the man replied with an air of arrogance Bakura didn't know was possible in a human voice.

"Afraid not we're-"

"Kaiba-Sama!" Yugi screamed

Duke flinched "You never call me 'Sama',"

"Of course we can make an exception" Yugi grinned running over "To think I actually get to meet Kaiba-Sama today of all days. This is the best birthday ever!"

"I'm sure it is" Kaiba smirked "What are you? 7?"

"I just turned ten" Yugi hopped up and down once again too excited to be offended "I'm going off to challenge the Gym leader later today and then start my adventure to become a Pokemon Master just like you!" He cheered "You must be here to fight the Gym leader to. You're going to need potions and berries and new cards" Yugi opened the door and held it for Kaiba to come in "To think Kaiba-Sama in MY shop!"

###

Seto was used to trainers, especially younger trainers, fawning all over him. It went with the territory of being a champion. That combined with the celebrity he had to turn himself into in the hope he'd get the cards approved for official use in other regions made it hard to interact with others in a casual manner. He wasn't all that shocked to find the little boy who just entered adulthood handing over his new Duel Disk to be signed. The boy was prancing around showing off all the things he thought Seto might need but the only things he really cared about were the Digiberries and new cards. Devlin's always had a nice selection of Dragon cards laid out, although they were expensive.

Once he got everything he needed Seto handed the strange boy (who was insisting he be the one to ring him up) his ID which had all his personal information and credits on it. The information was literally everything. Such as his name, birthday, hometown, his driver's permit and the points on it, if he'd ever been arrested or ticketed and what crimes (the only thing he had listed in that was repeated offenses of using Hidden Moves outside of battle without the proper badges for the region. Those incidences were when he was younger and just starting out but they were still on his record), his discounts and memberships at what places (that one was lengthy), his trainer profile, etcetera. His trainer profile included his gym badges and championships, along with those beauty competition ribbons (he'd entered Dratini in a few of those) and what year he won them. They stopped giving out real badges long before Kaiba was born as digital ones were just easier for the regions to keep track of. That way trainers couldn't enter the tournament using the badges from the previous year and the gym leaders didn't have to keep a mountain of badges on hand. You could still make them solid using a projector as the card was directly linked to your PC Account. Seto kept his stored inside his portable PC. His coat actually took the place of a backpack as it had multiple large pockets inside for objects to be synthesized or digitized in.

This was the true digital age, everything was digital, and IDs reflected that by having all information on one convention card. It was engulfed by complex firewalls to prevent hacking but there were a few of the more competent masters who could get past them. Seto was one of those people but he didn't really have any reason to mess with it. Not like he needed to steal credits with his fortune. When he was younger he hacked into them just to fuck them all to hell for laughs. A major global crime but he covered his tracks far to well and never got caught. Now that he was older and wiser he knew better then to risk that however careful he was.

There was a strange dark haired man (That any idiot would recognize as Duke Devlin and who Seto assumed was the little boy's father, said boy obviously taking after his mother) standing by a white haired man about as old as Seto. Mister Devlin was talking to the other man as he lied out a large assortment of supplies, probably getting them ready to be digitized and put into the man's portable PC. There were three entire boxes of shrunken Pokeballs, a hundred in each box, and a box of 25 Ultra Balls. He also took out five boxes of Digiberries and Super potions along with special items for Pokemon. There were tons of packages of fish meat (vacuumed sealed to preserve them) and some jars of persevered fruits and vegetables along with herbs and spices. He had enough food too cook a decent meal every day for nearly three months. Then packed in plenty nutrition drinks and vitamins. This was followed by emergency heating blankets. After he was finished packing he forcibly removed the man's Portable PC from his wrist. The man blushed as he was left in his underwear. Mister Devlin transferred all the data from the watch into a new, far more advanced, model before he got to work shoving the merchandise inside the backpack and digitizing it. Once that was finished he slapped the new watch onto the man's hand and turned his clothes back on.

That seemed like quite the upgrade. Did the man recently come into money? It was more a passing thought but the younger Devlin seemed to pick up on his curiosity as he explained "Bakura agreed to let me tag along with him now that I'm old enough to fight the Pokemon League. Duke's just being his overprotective self and making sure Bakura has everything he needs for our journey" not his father then if the boy was calling the man by his first name, unless he was adopted. They, of course, had some family connection or Devlin wouldn't have gone to the trouble of acquiring a... guide? bodyguard? representative? Whatever he was to escort the boy. Seto's parents hired an older trainer to a follow him around as well but he ditched him first chance he got (something he paid for years later when he returned home for a visit... like him Seto's parents could hold a grudge).

Ten year olds have rights. They could enter Pokemon tournaments and Contest. They could live on their own. They could drink and smoke (although such things didn't have nearly the same health risk as they did in the old days). They could even have sex and vote. At ten you were an adult... of course parents weren't likely to see it that way. You could be 80 and they still wouldn't see it that way.

Parents and guardians had rights over their children that they never lost. They could decide who you marry. If you met someone you loved but you're parents didn't consent to the marriage you couldn't get married. They could legally boss you around and even punish you how they saw fit. They could even grant other people rights over you as their 'representative' no matter how old you got. Luckily a representative looses their authority over you if your parents die unless they declared that person your guardian in their will, which was usually the case. The culture of Nut was big on the importance of family and respecting your elders to the point there were legal repercussions.

"And here's a gift" The older Devlin pulled out a deck of cards and handed them over.

"Duke..." Bakura tried "You didn't have to-"

"It's tradition to give a gift when you accept someone as your representative to your child"

"But you've given me plenty" Bakura looked down at his new watch.

"This is just stuff you will need to take care of Yugi. This" He forced the deck into Bakura's hands "Is a proper gift. Since you have multiple types of Pokemon I figured you'll need a deck that can help all of them. This is a Burn Deck"

"For fire types?"

Seto huffed in annoyance at the man's stupidity. The boy grinned as he handed him back his card and loudly whispered "Bakura thought card battles were a fad so he never got into them until after it was made legal for Gym Leaders to use them in official battles but he's an expert at traditional Battles, even won the Orange Islands championship last year and made it to at least the semifinals in all the other tournaments he was in"

That... actually explained a bit. Many dedicated trainers refused to evolve with the times and never got involved with card battles. Now they were having some trouble adjusting to the new rules in official gym battles.

"Yugi" Mr. Devlin called "Stop encouraging people to eavesdrop on me" he lightly scolded then got a look in his eyes Seto didn't like "Hey seeing as it is going to get boring in here, as I have to walk Bakura through his new deck, why don't you take Kaiba 'Sama' outside and have a little battle with him" Damn, that wasn't a request. It was an obvious order to Seto despite the words being spoke to the boy. An order from one of the richest most powerful men on the planet. Seto could easily ignore this under normal circumstances without causing offense but not after the man let him into his shop despite it being closed for his son's birthday. It's not like Seto knew that was the reason it was closed and if he had he sure as hell wouldn't have intruded like this. He just wasn't the most patient person and didn't want to wait a day to challenge the gym leader. Now he was stuck as the brat's entertainment. It was only a battle with a trainer so it wasn't an outrageous request. His Pokemon just wouldn't get much out of battling a beginning trainer.

Seto sighed at the wide eyes of the boy staring at him with hope "A quick match sounds like a fine idea. You can use your first Pokemon against one of mine"

"REALLY!?" The boy jumped up and started running out the door as he slipped his Duel Disk back on his wrist

Mister Devlin smiled and nodded at Seto as he slowly followed the boy.

Seto walked a little away from the store and made sure to put enough distance between himself in the boy so that their Pokemon would have plenty of room to battle.

"Shuffle your deck" Seto ordered taking out his own from the holder attached to the Duel Disk.

Yugi blushed a little offended, and largely embarrassed, that Kaiba-Sama didn't think he knew even to do that before a match. Not willing to correct him Yugi obeyed the order. After shuffling he put his deck back in his Duel Disk then inserted all three of his Pokeballs.

Deciding he should go easy on the kid Seto jerked his left arm forward and declared "Virbrava, I choose you!" The the Duel Disk recognized the command phrase and a beam of red light shot out of hit. The light reorganised itself and a green dragon / bug Pokemon materialized from it. It was only level 20 and therefore his weakest Pokemon. Through a fluke the little guy evolved much sooner then he was supposed to but that was known to happen sometimes but mostly with wild Pokemon. Still Virbrava could take on most other trainers.

Yugi observed the actions and copied them. The old Duel Disk wasn't voice activated and Yugi hadn't had time to read the manual but like hell he was going to miss a chance to Duel Kaiba Sama!

"Gastly, I choose you!" He needed his best to take on Kaiba Sama after all "Ready?" Yugi grinned but just then he felt something inside him move. Something dark and so cold it burned. This sensation should have been agonizing but instead it was exhilarating, intoxicating. Yugi felt himself surrender to the sensation, letting it guide him and even speak for him. The sensation compelled him to say in an elegant arrogant voice far deeper then his usual tone "You better be" he chuckled pulling out six cards from his deck and declaring "It's Time to Duel" Not wasting a moment 'Yugi', if that was who the boy still was, ordered "Gastly use Shadow Ball!"

Seto was too stunned to react immediately. He felt it and even saw it before his eyes. Dark magic bending around the boy, slightly altering his features. No on else took notice, it was as if there was some kind of glamour on the child forcing them not to see, but Seto could. A dark shroud engulfed the child, sending out waves of evil that bent the laws of physics for sport. And it was coming from the puzzle around the child's neck. A puzzle made out of the same material and even had the same symbol of an eye as his rod. This boy wasn't what he appeared in the least and he clearly knew how to use his magical artifact more efficiently then Seto. This child knew something he didn't.

Virbrava screamed as he was hit by a purple ball of energy. Seto cursed himself. He'd been so shocked by the display that he failed to give his Pokemon an order. Now the 'boy' would go before him in every round unless he decreased the Pokemon's speed significantly. Seto quickly forced himself to pay attention to the Duel. He would force the answers out of the boy. After placing several cards into the bottom slots of the blade he quickly called out "Virbrava use String Shot" The bug spit out a spray of web that crashed into the ghost. Looking at the PokeDex in the Duel Disk Seto scowled. The disk was still registering Gastly as faster so he still went first each round.

The 'boy' only smirked. Not bothering to look at his cards he slammed one on the card slots and yelled "Gastly digievolve to, Summoned Skull!"

The little ghost suddenly erupted into light and a purple fiend with several bones outside his body roared in its place. The 'boy' was all too smug as he explained "With the Summoned Skull Digivolution Gastly now gets a 25% bonus to ATK, 12% to DEF, and 6% to HP"

"Virbrava is still higher level then your Gastly!"

'Yugi' chuckled "It's dangerous to assume that" not wasting any more time 'Yugi' ordered "Summoned Skull use Thunder" an attack the card granted. The fiend sent out a blast of electricity into the sky only to have it come crashing down on Virbrava.

That attack took a surprising large amount of Hit Points with it. Virbrava couldn't take much more of this so Seto couldn't afford to use another String Shot in the hopes that that would slow it down. He should have used a card to stop the attack but he thought Virbrava would be able to hold out longer. This was a beginning trainer! His attacks shouldn't be enough to take away half of Virbrava's HP already! The Cards were meant for an emergency, an act of caution. He didn't actually plan to use them as he thought this was an easy win and didn't want to humiliate the boy... but this wasn't a boy he was facing was it?

Seto began his turn by drawing a card "I activate the trap card 'Castle of Dragon Souls' now all my Dragon Pokemon get a 7% increase to their attack"

"Good for you" the 'boy' gave a condescending smile

Sneering Seto commanded "Virbrava us Toxic!" the Dragon bug sprayed out a stream of poison into the ghost eyes.

The Gastly, as that was what it still was at its core, yelped before being thrown into a fit of giggles. Deep frightening laughter echoed from it's demonic shell. He yelped again as the poison continued to wound it but went right back to laughing, loving the pain.

"You'll have to excuse my friend" the 'boy' smirked "He has an odd sense of humor. Psychic!" the 'boy' quickly declared his next attack which was an attempted invasion of the other Pokemon's mind.

"Block Attack" Seto activated one of the spell cards he layed down earlier. A large white 'X' suddenly appeared over the bug and the attack bounced off.

The 'boy' stared clapping "well played, now if only I didn't have this. De Spell!" he activated one of his own cards. The X suddenly shattered apart and the Virbrava screamed in pain before it fell unconscious.

"Sure you want to stick to only one Pokemon?" The 'boy' smirked well Seto sneered returning his Pokemon

"What are you?" Seto demanded

"Now that would be telling" The... whatever the hell it was that was certainly NOT a boy, spoke with a sickly sweet voice "But perhaps you'd like to put a wager on it. I do love games. Particularly ones with risk. If you can defeat my Gastly I'll tell you everything you want to know if not..." the... creature trailed off "Well, why don't we keep that a surprise. You can have as many battles as you have Pokemon and I'll only use Gastly, we want to give you a chance afterall"

Kaiba growled

"Do you agree?"

"Yes" he needed to know what this creature was.

"Then let's move to a place a bit more appropriate shell we?" The Shadows around them suddenly came to life and surrounded them "Home sweet home" It grinned "Welcome to the Shadow Realm, it's not actually an entire realm. Just a pocket dimension in the space between life and death"

Seto looked around curiously, he could feel the dark power that surrounded them. This... might have been a mistake.

"Choose your next Pokemon Kaiba boy" it smirked

Seto steeled himself and decided he should end this as quickly as possible. Jerking his Duel Disk in front of him again he cried "Charizard, I choose you" The monster Dragon appeared. Seto's turn was automatically forfeited after sending out a new Pokemon but all the Pharaoh did was lay down a few cards before ending his turn. He didn't even use the opportunity to attack. Worrying on that Seto still called out "Dragon Rage!" Charizard's most powerful attack.

The dragon blasted out an enormous inferno from his mouth that hit the Summoned Skull at full force. The Gastly laughed hysterically as it continued to burn, the poison still eating away at him alongside the flames.

Not Yugi grinned quickly laying down a card "I active 'Gift of the Mystical Elf'" a blue she elf appeared behind the fiend and bathed it in warm light. The flames and poison instantly were extinguished and all the wounds were instantly healed.

Kaiba scowled looking at his hand "Shadow Spell!" chains lashed out around the Fiend restricting its movement "Your Pokemon's attack is decreased by 7%"

"How fortunate for you" Not Yugi grinned "Lets see if he's punches still hurt. Gastly let's go easy on him, use Lick!" The fiend pounced foward stretching out its long long and playfully licked the Charizard's face

Seto screamed feeling enormous pain fill him "Wh-" he gasped grasping his chest as the shadows seeped under his skin.

"You really shouldn't gamble unless you know what your risking" Not Yugi chuckled "You're going to feel everything your Pokemon feels but unlike them the human body is frail in comparison. You may die before your Charizard faints. And then, once you've died, you're soul is mine"

Seto's eyes widened "What kind of demon are you?"

Not Yugi smiled "You'll have to win to find that out but as it just be cruel to deny a dying man you may call me 'Pharaoh',"

Seto scowled but hardly had anything better to call him "All right 'Pharaoh'," He pulled out his next card and smiled "I activate 'Pot of Greed' which allows me to draw too more cards" He smirked seeing what he drew "Looks like I might still win after all" why was The Pharaoh just standing there waiting? "I activate 'Burst Breath' as long as I have a Dragon type on the field I can destroy your monster card"

Charizard shot out a burst of flame that ate away the shell and turned the Pharaoh's Pokemon back into a Gastly. "Charizard, Dragon Rage!"

The Pharaoh smirked "I activate 'Mirror Force'"

Kaiba stared in terror as his attack hit a force field and bounced back at Charizardà

Thinking quickly Seto pulled out his wand and cloaked himself in his own force field. When the attack hit Charizard the shadows around them launched themselves at Seto but impacted harmlessly against the shield.

The Pharaoh finally lost his smirk "So you're skilled in magic yourself" he observed

"I didn't stop the attack against my Pokemon so no rules were broken"

"No, they weren't but you're two Pokemon down" The Pharaoh nodded at the unconscious Charizard "Once they'll all down, regardless if you're dead, I still get you're soul. I can't risk you getting in my way again. Not this time" he glared

"Just something else you'll have to explain when you lose" It was finally Seto's turn to smirk "How long do you think your Gastly can hold up? He's already faced two Pokemon and he has three more to go. Even if you healed the damage he can only use his attacks so many times. Let's hope he has the stamina"

"Only three?" The Pharaoh smiled again

"Dragon Pokemon are rare" Seto shrugged nonchalantly dispite not having the sixth Pokemon slot filled "But they are far more powerful"

"I've yet to see this for myself" The Pharaoh mocked before chuckling darkly "Now this is a game! Let's see who can hold out the longest... and just how long can you keep the shadows at bay"

Seto smirked "It's a bit unfair I'm the only one getting assaulted. You seem to think I need a handicap"

"Who says you are" The Pharaoh grinned "Gastly just has greater health then you so I feel it less of the damage just like he does"

Seto scowled looking at his PokeDex and pointing it at Gastly. He's eyes widen as his blood ran cold. The bloody thing was level 57! No wonder his Pokemon were dropping like flies. This might as well be a gym battle! Just realizing his error Seto came late in the game by underestimating his opponent. He needed to think of a strategy to weaken the Pokemon slowly then go in or the kill but he already wasted one of his best Pokemon and didn't have a plan when using Virbrava. Not that it mattered because all the damage had been healed... but that might have been a good thing. The Pharaoh wasted a good card when it turns out his Pokemon wasn't significantly injured dispite appearances. He got rid of the effects and those could have caused real damage but he used it too early. The demon didn't see Seto as a threat and was toying with him. He could use that to his advantage if he just...

Seto took a gamble he discarded his entire hand and redrew, smiling as it paid off.

"Bagon I choose you" Seto jerked his arm back at the battle field and a beam of red light shout out. His turn was instantly over after sending out a new Pokemon and the Gastly lounged at it. Seto Grinned as things were finally going right. Bagon managed to dodge the attack. The Pharaoh shrugged and lied down some cards before ending his turn.

Seto laid down a series of cards "Speed Boost Power Up! Defense Boost Power Up, Dragon Scale, Digivolution Champion!" Well his Pokemon burst into light Seto had laid a trap card just in case. It only took a second for Bagon to morph into a shell like creature.

"Shelgon use harden" Seto ordered

"That's your plan?" The Pharaoh chuckled "Hide behind a shield and hope Gastly runs out of steam before he breaks through your defenses. This is the great 'Kaiba-Sama' the boy worships"

"I'm not stupid enough to let myself get goaded into a trap" Seto smirked and waited to see what the Pharaoh would do.

"How fortunate for you" The Pharaoh mucked drawing his cards "But I'm afraid this isn't exactly the best strategy either. It can be destroyed with on move. I activate Horn of Heaven, which automaticly destroys your digivolution card" Seto growled as Shelgon turned back into a Bagon "Next I digivolve Gastly into The Dark Magician and equip Axe of Despair increasing his attack by 100 percent. Now Dark Magician, Dark Magic Attack!"

The purple mage that was once a Gastly jotted his hand forward. Bagon screamed, unable to dodge the instantaneous attack and fell to the floor unconscious.

Kiba scowled returning the Pokemon to it's ball. He placed down a few trap cards before bringing out his next. "Go Kingdra! Digivole to Red Eyes Black Dragon! Use Giga Impact"

The pharaoh actually looked worried as his Gastly was hit by a full body attack but then smirked as the mage got up and started laughing "At least you managed to get one good hit in" the devil shrugged "Gastly... off with his head"

The mage charged full force and slammed his axe into the dragon's neck. The digital covering fell to pieces as Kingdra collapsed motionless on the ground.

This was when Seto would have started to panic, if he hadn't drawn just the right card "Go Dratini digivole to Blue eyes white Dragon. Next I activate Multiply giving me to duplicates of my Pokemon, now I activate Polymerization using my Pokemon together to get Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon" Now stood a single enormous dragon with three glaring heads "But before I attack let's activate Rings of Destruction destroying your monster card and going damage to you Pokemon in the process" Gastly screamed as it's mage coating burst apart. It grinned viciously, daring the dragon to move. Seto felt obligated to oblige it "Dratini, White Lightning!" The Gastly shrieked as it was roasted by white flames. When the attack was done it coughed weakly but still had that defiant smile and morbid giggle. It could barely hold its axe but obviously longed to use it. The Pharaoh, on the other hand, was in a rage. His unholy magic danced around him as his eyes glowed in dancing colors.

"You. Hurt. Me. Friend" The Pharaoh growled out, his anger making it hard to form words

"That's what happens in Pokemon Battles kid" Seto mucked seeing he was close to winning.

The Pharaoh grew his card and... smiked. That horrid smirk on a face contorted with anger "In that cause maybe I'll feed YOUR little friends to my Gastly when this is done" He slowly turned the card he was holding around and Seto felt his blood drain at what it was "My brother always does make sure I have the best of everything" He slammed the card down along with four others, each a piece of a single monster "I summon Exodia The Forbidden One" Gastly started laughing maniacally as it transformed into a terrifying giant dressed in the attire of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Every Pokemon put before it would instantly faint. The only way to stop it was destroy the digivolution card but Seto had none left in his hand "Exodia, Obliterate!" the colossal charged up a massive energy attack in its palm

"STOP!" the white haired fellow screamed jumping inbetween the two Pokemon just as the attack launched. The attack hit him head on... but he somehow grabbed it. Unholy energy began to circle him as well as he slowly began to crush the blast in his hand until it vanished from existence.

"You shouldn't be relying on him" The Pharaoh growled "The more you use his power the more control he'll have! You don't know what he's capable of"

"But now I know what you are" Bakura glared right back. He looked to the side as if he heard something then, as if obeying the invisible voice, he held out his hand. The shadows began surrounding his palm as he aimed it at the boy "Let him go" Bakura demanded

"If I do you'll regret it. Throughout the centuries Kaiba has spent his every waking moment looking for new ways to stab me in the back!" The Pharaoh roared

"I wasn't talking about Mister Kaiba. Give me back Yugi, or I'll let Zorc rip you out of him"

The Pharaoh growled but seeing whatever Bakura just said was more then a threat he compiled. The shadows settled back on the ground as the Pharaoh's body turned back into a boy. His eyes closed and he collapsed to the ground. His cards scattered on the grass and the Exodia monster disappeared. Gastly looked disappointed before returning to his ball of his own accord.

"I'm not sure how much he'll remember" Bakura informed sitting the boy up and gathering his cards

"He's possessed" stated Seto walking over.

"So it would seem" Bakura sighed

Yugi's eyes flattered open "W-what happened?"

"You tied with Kaiba Sama" Bakura lied so easily

"TIED!" Yugi eyes bugged out "I actually TIED with a Pokemon Champion!"

"It seems you were so shocked you fainted on the spot" Bakura smiled well the boy's face turned red in embarrassment.

###

**Next Time: Pretending to be Normal**

The boys challenge the Gym Leader. When they leave the city Kaiba invites himself to accompany Yugi and Bakura on their journey. He's always been more curious then cautious but this is insane even by his standards.


End file.
